The Science of Marketing Job Hunting

The science of finding a Marketing JobMarketing has always been an exciting, challenging and an innovative industry to be a part of. As economies grow, SME and large companies are finding possible ways to reach and stay with their target consumers causing the need for a high demand of marketing roles. This industry that relies heavily on creative genius spares nobody when it comes to get hired. The rookie and the seasoned marketer will be posed with the same question by their prospective employers –

What’s in for me?

Nadine Evans moderating a panel of senior marketers

To answer this, on 12th November CAMP and Marketers Unbound organized a panel discussion on ‘Career planning for Marketers’. Hosted at the Uberflip office – A content marketing software company, the event began with Helena Gospic, Sr. Recruiting Manger from Klick Health presenting important tips on resume building and effective job search strategies. Helena sees about 200 applications per role advertised at Klick, so she knows a thing or two about how to get noticed by hiring managers.
Her Best Practice Suggestions Include:

Upgrade your skills – recruiters look for certain skills like digital marketing, copywriting, and analytics. If you do not have these skills, look at upgrading them by

Taking online courses

Attending learning sessions/meet up events

Stay informed – read industry news, blogs, and follow thought leaders

Network – attend industry events, find a mentor, and do not shy away from informational interviews.

Build your personal brand

Take initiative at your current workplace – volunteer for groups and committees that will help build your resume and get you noticed.

In your job search, here are some of Helena’s tips:

Keywords are imperative. ATS databases are mainstream nowadays, so carefully ensure you’ve got the right keywords in your resume

Update your social media presence, because you will be researched

Do your research – know the company and the industry

Customize your application – the old days of submitting the same resume will not work, so take the time to modify it for the role

When applying for a role, if you know an employee, have them refer you. It’ll get you noticed far quicker, and may mean a nice hiring bonus for them (win-win)

Ask questions. To quote Helena (who was quoting an old boss) “Answers tell us what you know. Questions tell us how you think.”

While telling their own tales of job search in the highly competitive marketing world, the panelists gave great insights into how marketers can get noticed today. While many things have changed, some things have not. For example, “stunting” is still one of the best things you can do to get to the interview. Chuck Coolen told us about his first job at an agency, where he sent his resume stapled to a suit (back then, customers were called ‘Suits’), and once the CEO realized it wasn’t his dry-cleaning, he was interviewed. Even the corporate focused panelists suggest using stunting to get an interview.
Regardless of the role, you will be asked to do a test project. Years ago this was unheard of, but it’s now completely mainstream and very few hiring managers will move forward without seeing a test of what you can do. Vlad Rascanu relayed an example of a non-favoured candidate presenting a complete strategy plan to an unsuspecting board, who were so impressed they hired him almost immediately.
Some additional tidbits from our panelists included:

“Informational interviews are a good strategy to get introduced, try 10,000 coffees” – Chuck Coolen

“It takes a lot to get noticed. Creativity is the only voice that breaks from the clutter” – Chuck Coolen

All in all, very useful discussions and thoughts related to the science of fining a marketing job, to any marketer starting their career, looking for a new role, or simply thinking about moving forward in the field.
Co-Authored by: Nadine Evans & Nikhil Savio